The Department of Homeland Security is considering making it possible for border agents to ask for the websites you visit - and your passwords. Scarier still, this practice might inspire other countries to follow suit. Bleh!

"A staggering number of our political theorists believe that the only way to make the world better is to destroy it." An interesting read that's ultimately pro-reasoned-utopian, arguing that we should continue to try to make things, better, not worse. Their words gooder than mine.

The article envisions a world where tons of people are doing basic but useful technology programming for the large middle swathe of technology-driven companies. An interesting idea, although I have my (completely uninformed) reservations about just how many programmers our economy needs (or will accept), especially with more sophisticated, capable open source tooling and platforms-as-a-service for each industry develop. I've found that technology companies like to consolidate their technology and sell it, and the mechanics of software mean that after a certain point the One Service is just good enough for everyone. Of course, though, we'll still need plenty of plumbers - we're not hitting the end of the programmer demand side any time soon. (My advice? Learn devops and get good at it. That's not going anywhere anytime soon.)

Neat little article running through a bunch of different machine-learning-driven music generation tools and software - with audio samples! Some are creating pop songs from generated melodies and harmonies (and then assisted by humans), some directly create audio, others create MIDI data.

Way's Notes

Hi!

Before I start rambling - thanks to bonniethunderstorms an zapo for the emails this week. I chose a piece each from their portfolios I particularly liked - and I owe you two emails. (Are you an artist? Send me your work. (Also, I know, I owe some other people emails still...))

It's early. Like, 6am-7am early. I decided to get up earlier to do this one because I was wiped last night, so this is fresh from me of like 2 hours ago to you of now, rather than a day or two ago like it usually is. So, hi. I feel closer to you. Is that weird? I don't think it's weird. Don't make it weird.

Some thoughts: it's interesting how I lied in bed this morning, ruminating on things (life, death, work, taxes, healthcare, the end of human life as we know it), positively unable to fall asleep, until my alarm went off. Then I immediately snoozed it, and thought, "just ten more minutes". Pavlov's hooks are deep! I realized that this was stupid and that I should just get up, so I did. And here we are!

Anyways, I just want to thank you for being here, continuing (or newlying) to read Glitchet. Please share it with your friends, and remember: you have the power within your mind to accept or deny whatever you want. Use it for good and better!
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